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React Insect

Rapid elimination of invasive agricultural insect pest outbreaks by tackling them with SIT programs

REACT aims to develop long-term environmentally friendly response strategies and novel sustainable tools to protect fruit and vegetable production and export capacities from two invasive insect pests of EU priority, Bactrocera dorsalis and Bactrocera zonata. By using SIT techniques, we are leading an eco-friendly fight against invasive insect pests in the EU.

Project Duration

REACT is a 48 month project kicked-off in November 2022. Its work will span until October 2026

Project Objective

REACT aims to provide rapid pesticide-free pest control to protect ecosystems and biodiversity in the European Union

Project Partnership

REACT unites 15 partners from 12 countries and 3 continents

Project Funding

REACT receives funding of 6.65 million Euro from the European Union under its Horizon Europe framework

Join our community! Monitor invasive species on the IPM app.

Two EU-funded projects, IPM POPILLIA and REACT, have joined forces to involve citizens in mapping invasive insect species. Farmers concerned about their crops, schoolchildren and students, nature lovers, amateur biologists and everyone else are invited to support our research by taking photos of flies and entering weather data and other relevant information into the IPM-Invasive Species Mapper app. The app is available for both Android and iOS.

Visit our Citizen Science project on iNaturalist!

REACT is one of the projects of the EU's Farm to Fork strategy

Project Milestones

2023

March 2023

Milestone 0.1 - Consortium agreement

Milestone 0.2 - Kick-off meeting (KOM)

June 2023

Milestone 6.1 - Relevance of selected list of parameters for socio-economic analysis for the project developed tools and strategies validated

Milestone 7.1 - Plan for dissemination & exploitation including communication developed

October 2023

Milestone 4.1 - Initial bioinformatic pipeline for Work Package 4 generation of Genetic Sexing Strains in Ceratitis capitata developed

2024

February 2024

Milestone 2.1 - Amplicon sequencing pipeline developed and microbial profiles determined

April 2024

Milestone 1.1 - Sequencing for population diversity and microbiome studies completed

Milestone 2.2 - Acquisition of data for meta-analysis on ecological impacts of Bactrocera dorsalis and Bactrocera zonata conducted

Milestone 3.1 - Metabolomics pipeline and male quality markers in Ceratitis capitata developed

April 2024

Milestone 4.2 - Y chromosome targeting developed and evaluated as proof-of-principle in Ceratitis capitata

Milestone 5.1 - Emergency-response rearing facility established and productivity assured

September 2024

Milestone 1.2 - Parameters for population dispersal studies collected

October 2024

Milestone 1.3 - Parameters for developing simulation models for Bactrocera dorsalis and Bactrocera zonata collected

Milestone 3.2 - Fruitfly interception protocol developed and evaluated

October 2024

Milestone 5.2 - Area-tailored Ceratitis capitata containment strategy developed and validated

Milestone 7.2 - Reaching sufficient response and interest for the project (indicator values in Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication Plan)